Page 70 of Broken Star

Something flashes in his eyes—recognition, maybe. Or triumph.

“Say that again,” he demands, and he glances at the curve of my neck, his eyes dilating in the way they always do before he feeds.

“I want to know that you’ll destroy anyone who tries to hurt me,” I repeat, speaking so steadily that there’s no way he can question me. “That you’ll kill them for so much as touching me.”

His midnight gaze slides down my body, lingering on my parted lips.

“You should be scared,” he murmurs, but there’s a note of hungry amusement in his tone, as if he’s daring me to take it back.

“I’m not. Because I trust you,” I tell him, and when I push up on my toes to close the distance between us, I’m hit with the fact that despite everything, it’s not a lie.

I actually trust that Prince Aerix Nightborne of the Night Court will do anything in his power to keep me safe.

And so, I lean further into him. He tastes like winter air, and the kiss deepens so suddenly that it knocks the breath from my lungs.

Everything about him is overwhelming. His cool lips, the chill rolling off his body, and the commanding push of his tongue against mine. And as my body arches into him, there’s no denying it for a second longer—I want more.

He must sense it, because he retracts his wings quickly enough for him to pull his shirt off.

I trace the sharp lines of muscle on the perfect planes of his chest, a spark of triumph flaring in me when he groans, his eyes sliding half-shut as he gives in to my touch.

It isn’t long until his hands find the hem of my dress, and he pulls it over my head in one fluid motion, leaving me almost bare before him in my thin white chemise.

“Are you sure you want this?” he asks as a few snowflakes fall around us, dissolving in the heat of my skin when they drift too close. “Because once I decide to take something—to fully take it—I don’t turn back.”

I meet his gaze and let him see the simmering hunger in my eyes—one that likely mirrors his own. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life,” I tell him, my voice steady despite the wildfire racing through my veins. “I’m yours, Aerix. I think I’ve been yours since you pulled me from that water.”

That’s apparently all the encouragement he needs. Because he crushes his mouth to mine again, lifts me up, and brings me with him as he sits down on the armchair, situating my legs around his waist as he alternates between sweet presses of his lips against my neck and sharper grazes of his fangs.

But he doesn’t break the skin.

He’s teasing me—tempting me.

As he does, the top of my undergarments slip, threatening to slide down. He notices, of course—he notices everything—and in one quick movement, he peels the straps lower, baring more of my skin as a current of cold air snakes around my shoulders.

“You’re so delicate. So warm,” he murmurs, burying his face in my neck again. “The only human I’ve ever…”

I tense, and he pulls back, his eyes hardening as he swallows down the rest of what he was going to say.

The breeze around us calms, and the flurries stop falling.

“The only human you’ve ever what?” I ask quietly, my heart pounding, my body warming with anticipation.

“The only human I’ve ever wanted to be fully intimate with,” he admits, and his eyes search mine, as if he’s bracing himself for rejection.

I blink, stunned.

His confession shouldn’t surprise me. Aerix’s refusal to be intimate with his humans has been mentioned to me before.

Still, it’s one thing to suspect, and another to have him say it out loud.

“Why me?” I ask, resting my forearms against the low back of the chair and gazing so deeply into his eyes that it’s like I’m seeing into a completely new part of him.

“Because your soul calls to me. Your fire, your passion, your defiance, your confidence, your bravery, your beauty, your blood…” he trails off, his wings flaring, his body tightening beneath me. “You belong to me. And I’m going to have you. Every single part of you.”

The possessiveness in his words should terrify me. Instead, it feels like coming home—like finally finding the place where I belong.

But I don’t have time to think about it further. Because his lips are crashing against mine again, and he sits straighter, his hips pushing up into mine as my fingers explore the sculpted planes of his back.

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